Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — President Bush gave NASCAR’s top drivers an executive order yesterday.

“Gentlemen, start your engines.”

The sport’s top drivers did that and more, giving 180,000 fans packed into the grandstands around the Daytona 500 speedway an exciting race that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won after taking the lead with just 18 laps to go.

Earnhardt’s father, who was killed in a last-lap crash in 2001, “was over in the passenger side with me,” the winner said during a jubilant celebration in Victory Lane. “I’m sure he was having a blast.”

Mr. Bush, another man following in his father’s footsteps, was clearly having a blast as well.

Courting the roughly 75 million racing fans, which include this year’s version of “soccer moms” — “NASCAR dads” — the president drew vigorous cheers from fans packed around the 2.5-mile track.

Shunning his habit of leaving sporting events shortly after they start, the president stayed about 30 minutes longer than scheduled before departing for Tampa.

Mr. Bush got to take a slow half-lap around the flat shoulder of the track, whose banks rise so steeply that a stopped car would probably flip end-over-end down to the bottom.

About 30 minutes before the green flag, his 18-vehicle motorcade pulled into Pit Row, where he and first lady Laura Bush emerged from a Cadillac sport utility vehicle to mingle with fans and shake hands with drivers.

Mr. Bush even peered into car No. 16, sponsored by the National Guard. If the car reminded him of the tempest swirling around his own service in the Texas Air National Guard, he didn’t show it.

The president, who had a tough week in Washington that included days of intense media scrutiny over his Guard service 30 years ago, later said in an NBC interview: “It’s great to get out of Washington, believe me.”

Asked whether he’d like to take a spin in one of the cars, which often top 200 mph around the track, Mr. Bush said “I’d like to, but I’m afraid the [Secret Service] agents wouldn’t let me.”

“I flew fighters in the Guard and I like speed, and it would have been fun to drive up these banks,” he said. “I can’t imagine taking a bank at 210 miles an hour.”

Story Continues →